Adventurism /// solo & women Amsterdam to Bali

We have arrived in Lithuania and since I decided that Europe was going to be the most expensive part of the trip I was going to save money by only couchsurfing or bushcamping. So I met up with this guy from Kaunas and I got to surf the couch in the apartment of his son. Who was in Australia. So I had the entire apartment to myself. He gave me the key and everything. I mean, we all know stories of this kind of friendliness on the road, but the first time it happens you are always a little uncomfortable with it.

I guess later you learn that these people help you out from the goodness of their hearts and that by visiting them they change your heart too so whenever you get back from your trip you will start treating strangers like strangers have treated you over the days/months/years.

But the reason this is my favorite video of Lithuania is because he was part of a biker club and the biker club had a holiday house at one of the lakes. So we went there by car, it's one of those moments where you realize you are in the car with a stranger and you don't really know where you are going.

It was gigantic, the land around the house was enormous. The trees, the lake, we went kayaking. It was a little weird, I have to say, especially the door that was just standing there without any walls.

So here I am, on this big property drinking vodka with the bikers from the biker club. It was a very memorable experience for me, and I think that is because biker clubs have such an bad image of criminal activity and violence. But in reality most of them are just the sweetest guys you will ever meet. People who value friendship and camaraderie. Thanks guys!

Is it just me, or does it take everyone some time to get used to packing all your stuff every day?
So many times I planned to leave early, but there was something getting in between.
Things not fitting in bags.
A last piece of editing needing to be done.
Rearranging the stuff all together.
And going for an early lunch just before leaving.
I guess I just needed time to get used to the road life.
Although even after a year there were still slow days.
I like it.

Let me introduce myself, I'm Nora. I was 29 at the time of this video recording. I had gotten my motorcycle licence 1 year before same as the bike. My trustworthy Suzuki VStrom DL650 from 2005. I chose this bike because it was comfortable and I thought it looked nice. That's all, I had no clue about any of this. I did not even know that what I was about to do was called adv riding...

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Great video! Very entertaining and the background music (most select hideous hard rock...) was very pleasant. I will enjoy following along!

DIY
If you are not a native speaker like me, the first time you here this abbreviation, you've probably thought, just like me, huh?
But, a quick google search tells us it means DO IT YOURSELF. Now, when it came to my motorcycle journey
it was pretty evident that was going to have to do everything myself. And that is just the way I like it.

Now I do carry the title, Master of Science, but that doesn't mean I am the best engineer. But with some prototyping experience
from my time at uni I feel pretty confident pulling things apart and trying to fix it. I studied Industrial Design Engineering.
Here in the Netherlands you don't pick a major and minor, but you opt for a preplanned program. There is room for some electives,
and half a year of picking any minor you want to do, but the rest of the schedule is set. So I learned everything from product design,
material science, calculus and drawing. Pretty cool and the main idea is trying to figure out what the problem is and then to try and
solve it. Doesn't this sound familiar!

When it comes to repairing things, I feel the most important part of this, is not to be scared. Cautious, yes, scared, that is not helpful at all.
And sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. But hey, isn't that life in general anyways?

I don't even remember how I broke the scottoiler, I just remember that I didn't even have it for that long,
but I mounted it on the wrong spot so it broke when I fell. Follow the instructions people!

Wow! As a video editor I admire your hard work in making your RR entertaining. I can't imagine the time it takes to set up the ride-by shots. Looks like you're having a blast, keep it up and stay safe.

Wow! As a video editor I admire your hard work in making your RR entertaining. I can't imagine the time it takes to set up the ride-by shots. Looks like you're having a blast, keep it up and stay safe.

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Thank you! I know that only video editors appreciate how challenging it has been doing these videos on the road.
The art of making it look easy, but being a shitload of work in the end. But I am happy that I did it.
Even if it was only because my grandmother was able to travel along with me by watching the episodes.

My first real challenge...
Came in the form of a beautiful dandelion field.
Maybe you should watch the video first this time.

So, I love this video because of my facial expressions.
Sometimes you have the camera running to capture these moments.
When something goes wrong that you completely did not expect to happen.

But this is the moment you can test yourself.
How would I react if my house was on fire.
You will never know until your house is on fire.

How will I react if I am in a car crash.
You will never know until you are in a car crash.

Professionals train for these things. Going on an adventure like this
is like training yourself to cope with unexpected things in life.
This is the reality, now deal with it.

Now that I back home, integrated in society again, I meet people,
who seem to have never practiced this concept. They always get stuck
in some kind of victim role. And keep playing that role for years and years.
It was never their fault, it is affecting their life and they are suffering.
They are unhappy.

I know life is unfair, but what am I supposed to do about it?
So this shit happened to me, maybe it was my own fault.
But now I get to fix it. Yay!

I think the first step is flipping your mindset from, wtf, to lets do this.
I usually talk a lot to myself. Maybe it looks stupid but it helps to formulate a plan.
A plan A, a plan B and a plan C. Evaluate the plans according to the situation.
And execute them in order of most likely to succeed.

I was in a foreign country, on a little traveled road, didn't speak the language.
A girl, by myself.
But by following this approach it was fixed in less then 2 hours.

Plan A was to run/start it by myself. But the bike is so heavy, even with all the gear off
that I can't run fast enough.

Plan B was to push it up a hill, and roll down and try to start it. But the hill turned out not to be
steep enough so that didn't work either.

Plan C was to try and stop a car and ask for help. That worked like a charm. I just love the
Russian can do mindset and friendliness. We did not speak a word of each others language,
but we managed to fix it together. I just love that.

Maybe, this had nothing to do with ADV riding, maybe you liked it. I just write down what I am
thinking looking back at these videos. Some of which I have never seen after uploading them.

As a fellow pack-rat and subscriber to 'lets combine riding with <whatever other outdoor activity>' -- why yes, road trip through the Dolomiti + climbing trip absolutely do belong together -- I love the skateboard on the back. That skateboard probably traveled farther and to more countries than many people.

Tho my packrattitis did teach me one useful thing to make packing/unpacking on the road quicker: Pack like you got one bag less than you actually have (for obvious reasons I usually use a hiking backpack for it), then once you've actually left for the trip decompress luggage by moving stuff from the other bags into it.
Less densely packed bags = quicker packing.